Conservation Criminology: Modelling Offender Target Selection for Illegal Fishing in Marine Protected Areas

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1455-1477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian P Weekers ◽  
Renee Zahnow ◽  
Lorraine Mazerolle
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Environmental Criminology ◽  
Wildlife Crime ◽  
The Past ◽  
Marine Park ◽  
Regional Population ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe emergence of conservation criminology over the past decade provides a unique insight into patterns of wildlife crime. Wildlife crime has a dramatic impact on many vulnerable species and represents a significant challenge to the management of protected areas around the world. This paper contributes to the field of conservation criminology by examining the travel patterns of fishing poachers in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia. The results demonstrate that distance is a key feature of offender target selection, reflecting the established environmental criminology concept of distance decay. The analysis also reveals a significant relationship between individual no-take zones and regional population areas. The applicability of a nodal-oriented approach to wildlife crime prevention is discussed.

scholarly journals Illegal fishing and compliance management in marine protected areas: a situational approach

Crime Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian Weekers ◽  
Gohar Petrossian ◽  
Lauric Thiault
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Boosted Regression Trees ◽  
Environmental Criminology ◽  
Wildlife Crime ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Marine Park ◽  
Spatio Temporal

AbstractProtected Areas (PAs) are spatially representative management tools that impose various levels of protection for conservation purposes. As spatially regulated places, ensuring compliance with the rules represents a key element of effective management and positive conservation outcomes. Wildlife crime, and in particular poaching, is a serious global problem that undermines the success of PAs. This study applies a socio-ecological approach to understanding the opportunity structure of illegal recreational fishing (poaching) in no-take zones in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. We use Boosted Regression Trees to predict the spatio-temporal distribution of poaching risk within no-take Marine National Park zones. The results show that five risk factors account for nearly three quarters (73.6%) of the relative importance for poaching in no-take zones and that temporally varying conditions influence risk across space. We discuss these findings through the theoretical lens of Environmental Criminology and suggest that law enforcement strategies focus on reducing the negative outcomes associated with poaching by limiting the opportunity of would-be offenders to undertake illegal activity.

scholarly journals Where technology meets ecology: acoustic telemetry in contemporary Australian aquatic research and management

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (8) ◽  
pp. 1397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Taylor ◽  
Russ C. Babcock ◽  
Colin A. Simpfendorfer ◽  
David A. Crook
Keyword(s):  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Acoustic Telemetry ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Aquatic Environments ◽  
The Past ◽  
Safety Design ◽  
Substantial Investment ◽  
Acoustic Array ◽  
Insight Into

Acoustic telemetry is used to investigate a diverse suite of questions regarding the biology and ecology of a range of aquatic species, and is an important tool for fisheries and conversation management. Herein we present a brief review of the Australian acoustic telemetry literature in the context of key areas of progress, drawing from several recent studies and identifying areas for future progress. Acoustic telemetry has been increasingly used in Australia over the past decade. This has included substantial investment in a national acoustic array and the associated development of a national acoustic telemetry database that enables tag deployment and detection data to be shared among researchers (the Integrated Marine Observing System Animal Tracking Facility). Acoustic telemetry has contributed to important areas of management, including public safety, design and management of marine protected areas, the use of closures in fisheries management, informing environmental flow regimes and the impacts of fisheries enhancements, and is most powerful when used as a complementary tool. However, individual variability in movement often confounds our ability to draw general conclusions when attempting to characterise broad-scale patterns, and more work is required to address this issue. This overview provides insight into the important role that acoustic telemetry plays in the research and management of Australian aquatic ecosystems. Application of the technology transcends aquatic environments and bureaucracies, and the patterns revealed are relevant to many of the contemporary challenges facing decision makers with oversight of aquatic populations or ecosystems.

scholarly journals Benthic Diversity of Sessile Organisms in Rocky Reef Habitats of Coastal Brazil: An Insight into the Implementation of Marine Protected Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 09 (12) ◽  
pp. 404-412
Author(s):  
Ralf Riedel ◽  
Fernando Castro-Cardoso ◽  
Gabriel Correal ◽  
Mauricio Mata
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Rocky Reef ◽  
Sessile Organisms ◽  
Insight Into

scholarly journals Marine protection targets: an updated assessment of global progress

Oryx ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Boonzaier ◽  
Daniel Pauly
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Marine Protected Area ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Past Century ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dimensional Measure ◽  
Marine Protection

AbstractDespite the considerable expansion in the number and extent of marine protected areas during the past century, coverage remains limited amid concerns that many marine protected areas are failing to meet their objectives. New estimates of global marine protected area, based on the database maintained by Sea Around Us, revealed a degree of progress towards protecting at least 10% of the global ocean by 2020. It is estimated that > 6,000 marine protected areas, covering c. 3.27% (12 million km2) of the oceans, had been designated by the end of 2013. However, protection is generally weak, with c. one-sixth (1.9 million km2) of the combined area designated as no-take areas (i.e. fishing and other extractive activities are prohibited). Additional large tracts of ocean will need to be protected to reach the 10% target, and we investigate hypothetical scenarios for such expansion. Such scenarios offer a one-dimensional measure of progress as they do not address aspects of other global targets, such as Aichi Target 11, which will help to ensure that marine protected areas meet their objectives and achieve conservation outcomes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document